NOTES for Luk 6:37-49

How are we to understand the parable of the bad tree and the good tree? After all, everyone (ourselves included) sometimes bears good fruit and sometimes bad fruit. It seems that here again we face the temptation to divide people (and ourselves) into good and bad. (Sometimes it can even feel satisfying to say, “Oh, how very bad I am!”—as though it were useful for humility.) But once again we are judging, while we have been told, “Do not judge.” Most likely, the point is that our actions arise from an inner spiritual orientation for which we are responsible. Therefore, in order not to be a bad tree, we must bear good fruit; and in order for the Lord's words to benefit us, we must put them into practice. This is the Christian's fundamental moral task: to do good, not to judge. Christ will judge.